RaveThe GuardianHistory and travelogue combine wonderfully in this tale of colonial plunder and hubris .... Luminous ... Reflective, watchful, calm, Roberts is such a vivid travel writer that you forget what a brilliant historian she is. She has the water-diviner’s gift for stories in unlikely places. And then, through research in archives as well as on the ground, for uncovering sparky details that bring the story to life ... Her narrative [has] a glow of sympathetic charm ... It is Robert’s thoughtful reactions to these events in places where they happened, sometimes under the very same trees, that give her book its power ... [An] ugly story is made bearable by her warm, beautiful writing, and equally warm human encounters.
Alexis Wright
RaveThe Spectator (UK)Not an easy read. It does not care to be. Playful, formally innovative, multi-storied, allegorical, protean and dizzyingly exhilarating, it is long, lyrical and enraged ... There are few paragraphs, but every sentence flashes and disturbs, every chapter begins by exhorting an oracle to speak up.
Marie Benedict
PositiveFinancial Times (UK)Benedict’s novel builds on the story-line told in the biographies as if recounted by Franklin herself. Though Franklin’s voice sounds suspiciously similar to that in the Author’s Note, it is sympathetic and credibly expository. Here is the authentically single-minded scientist ... Benedict’s Franklin can be blunt but makes warm friendships and loves the camaraderie of scientific collaboration ... Benedict is terrific at showing how male exclusivity operates and has researched the science in magnificent depth. It is a shame that complex detail, whether scientific, social or geographical, can create rather leaden, unconvincing dialogue ... But the lovely personal details...make this a humanly as well as scientifically engaging read.
